• (British, America) IPA: /tʃɪŋk/

chink (plural chinks)

1. A narrow opening such as a fissure or crack.
   • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299 ↗:

     What a pity they didn’t stop up the chinks and the crannies though, and thrust in a little lint here and there.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Yet I did not give way, but settled to wait for the dawn, which must, I knew, be now at hand; for then I thought enough light would come through the chinks of the tomb above to show me how to set to work.

   • 1842 Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome

     Through one cloudless chink, in a black, stormy sky, / Shines out the dewy morning star.

2. A chip or dent in something metallic.
3. (figuratively) A vulnerability or flaw in a protection system or in any otherwise formidable system.

   The warrior saw a chink in her enemy's armor, and aimed her spear accordingly.

   The chink in the theory is that the invaders have superior muskets.

• Russian: тре́щина
• Spanish: fisura, rendija

• Russian: цара́пина

chink (chinks, present participle chinking; past and past participle chinked)

1. (transitive) To fill an opening such as the space between logs in a log house with chinking; to caulk.

   to chink a wall

2. (intransitive) To crack; to open.
3. (transitive) To cause to open in cracks or fissures.

• Russian: затыка́ть
• Spanish: rellenar

chink (plural chinks)

1. A slight sound as of metal objects touching each other; a clink.
2. (colloquial, now, rare) Ready money, especially in the form of coins.
   • 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of, Nebraska 1987, pp. 47-8:

     I thought that if all the hills about there were pure chink, and all belonged to me, I would give them if I could just talk to her when I wanted to […]

   • to leave his chink to better hands

   • 1855, Henry Augustus Wise, Tales for the Marines (page 121)

     At the same time, mind, I must have a bit of a frolic occasionally, for that's all the pleasure I has, when I gets a little chink in my becket; and ye know, too, that I don t care much for that stuff, for a dollar goes with me as fur as a gold ounce does with you, when ye put on your grand airs, and shower it about like a nabob.

• Russian: побрякивание

• Spanish: monedas

chink (chinks, present participle chinking; past and past participle chinked)

1. (intransitive) To make a slight sound like that of metal objects touching.

   The coins were chinking in his pocket.

2. (transitive) To cause to make a sharp metallic sound, as coins, small pieces of metal, etc., by bringing them into collision with each other.

• Russian: звене́ть

chink (plural chinks)

1. Alternative form of kink#English|kink (“gasp for breath”)

chink (chinks, present participle chinking; past and past participle chinked)

1. Alternative form of kink#English|kink (“gasp for breath”)

chink (plural chinks)

1. Alternative form of Chink

chink (plural chinks)

1. (slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of perceived Chinese ethnicity.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 51

     Then her eyes, always alert for the affairs of her kitchen, fell on some action of the Chinese cook which aroused her violent disapproval. She turned on him with a torrent of abuse. The Chink was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively quarrel ensued.

   • 1920, George Herriman, Krazy Kat comic strip, October 17:

     [Ignatz Mouse:] A new Chink in town, and acting mighty queer too – I suspect foul play.

• (Chinese person) Chinaman, gook

• French: chinetoque, chinetoc, chintok
• German: Schlitzauge (offensive term for any Asian person)
• Russian: китаёза

chink

1. (slang, offensive, ethnic slur) Chinese, or perceived to be Chinese.